


You can't just. Leave Me.

by MountianSpirit



Category: The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms
Genre: Abandonment, Abandonment Issues, Angst, Betrayal, Hurt/Comfort, idk if it is which is why im putting possible, im projecting onto legend so much in this one, possible panic attack, pranks gone wrong, very wrong
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-18
Updated: 2020-12-18
Packaged: 2021-03-10 23:09:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,000
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28145139
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MountianSpirit/pseuds/MountianSpirit
Summary: Legend wakes up alone without a trace of the other heroes, and he freaks out. A self projection fic combined with legend angst. Enjoy!
Relationships: Link/Ravio (Legend of Zelda)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 74





	You can't just. Leave Me.

Legend wakes up slowly to the sounds of birds and leaves gently rustling in the wind. Its a nice, calm moment, that's quickly disturbed by the realization that its too late in the day for it to be THIS quiet. Surely at least Wild would be up and making breakfast? No one can cook _that_ quietly, not even Time, who can travel without making a sound while dressed up in metal armor!

He frowns and sits up in his bedroll and is met with a completely empty camp. He can feel his heart sinking in panic, but reasons that there's no way they all left without him, they were all probably just busy with gathering food, or fighting monsters or something, right?

He does his best to ignore the part of his mind that tries to tell him that they weren't even real, that he dreamed it all up again. Trying to make him panic more.

He swallows the lump in his throat and starts frantically cleaning up his stuff in hopes of catching up with the rest of the group, all the while looking around for absolutely any sign of them, even looking to the tops of trees for either Hyrule or Wild.

He sees nothing, not a path, not a flattened out area where they slept the night before, nothing in the trees, not a thing that would have suggested they were there at all. And that's what lets his fear take over, making him actually start panicking. His breathing shallows in a last vain attempt to stay steady, and he stands up with his bag in his hand, turning in circles for a path they took, desperate for any sign of the other heroes at all only to be met with nothing still.

"Guys?!" He yells out, hoping for an answer.

"Guys?!?!" He tries to yell louder but his throat closes up in his panic and the last part of the word crackles into a strangled whisper. He tries to gulp down another lump in his throat but it floats right back up and he makes a strangled wheezing sound as tears finally start falling.

He falls to his knees next to his haphazardly packed bag and just kind of stares at it in panic and belated shock. Were they all just a part of another joke of a dream or was he ditched? Did they finally get sick of him and leave him or were they ever even real to begin with? Was he finally going crazy???

Legend was full on sobbing now, tears completely obscuring his vision and making everything one big blur of greens and browns until he closed his eyes and curled into himself. Of course they'd all leave. Everyone in his life left him so far, why would this have been any different? Was having a couple friends really so much to ask the goddesses for?

Something walks into the deserted campsite clearing beside Legend. Hylian footsteps by the sound of them hesitantly approaching him, purposeful enough to let him know they were trying to be noticed, but he couldn't bring himself to hope or care. It would just end in disappointment.

The person that found him kneels down next to him and places a gentle hand on his back before speaking, and Legend freezes when he hears the voice.

"Legend...?"

Legend slowly sits up and turns to look at Hyrule. A very real, very solid Hyrule, who's sitting next to him looking concerned and sad. Another sob builds up in Legend's throat before escaping with the pure amount of relief he felt at seeing him, and the kid pulls him into a comforting hug, letting the veteran hero, who was still way too young to be a vet, hide his face in his neck.

More noise filled the forest as the other links came back to the clearing and Legend sank further into Hyrules arms, his hold almost turning into something more protective, making him feel safe and yet unable to stop crying. He was just. Relieved they hadn't left him yet afterall, real or not.

"Yea, great idea for a prank, warriors, you made him upset!" Wind mumbles accusingly to the captain.

"I didn't know this was gonna happen! And don't act like you didn't think it would be funny too, you little shit!"

"Well, _I_ for one knew this would be a bad idea, and I can't believe I let you all drag me into this." Sky growls out next to them, and Legend feels his gut sink at the tone. An angry sky was a rare thing, and he knows that Sky isn't angry at him, but that doesn't stop him from feeling any less fear from it.

The two immediately stop their bickering and the heroes go silent in shame while Sky makes his way over to where Legend is being held protectively by Hyrule. Then, as if to try and break the tense atmosphere, someone starts setting back up camp and the others follow suit.

"Hey Vet, I'm sorry we pretended to ditch you. If there's any way I can make it up to you, let me know." Sky spoke softly from where he knelt down by Legend and Hyrule, carefully draping his sailcloth over the still shaking hero. "And if it's any consolation, Hyrule and Time were off hunting when Warriors came up with the idea, so they weren't a part of it at all." Sky says before standing back up with a light pat on Legends head, "feel better soon, I’m so sorry this happened." And then he left, presumably to go help Time scold the other heroes.

Legend has calmed down somewhat, now. He was still shaking and breathing heavily from crying, and his chest still hurt from his panic and fear of being left, but he was starting to calm down, and after a few minutes, he falls back asleep.

* * *

Hyrule and Time were out hunting for more meat at the request of Wild when they heard Legend yell for the other heroes. It was an odd sound to hear in the veterans voice because of how panicked it sounded, and Time and Hyrule immediately dropped what they were doing to go see what was going on back at camp, worried something bad had happened. And in a way, they were right, it just wasn’t the type of bad they were expecting.

When they got to the edge of the camp to find it empty and Legend sobbing, Hyrule immediately changed the way he walked to hesitantly approach the veteran hero, knowing he could easily lash out at them if he was surprised so he made sure he was loud enough to be heard. Kneeling down beside him, the traveller places a hand on Legend’s back.

“...Legend?”

He tenses immediately under his hand and slowly, almost as if in shock, he looks at Hyrule and the sprite’s heart breaks at the sight of his friend, his brother looking so broken.

After a second of processing that Hyrule was there, Legend starts crying again and since he hadn’t pulled away from the hand resting on his back, the traveler decides to pull him into a hug. Legend practically melts into it as his sobbing starts anew.

Looking up at the sound of more people approaching the clearing, Hyrule adjusts to hold Legend more protectively until he and Time are met with the very guilty looks of 6 Links. Wind, almost immediately after seeing Legend, gives Warriors a dirty look.

"Yea, great idea for a prank, warriors, you made him upset!” the sailor growls at him.

"I didn't know this was gonna happen! And don't act like you didn't think it would be funny too, you little shit!" Warriors cried, pointing an accusatory finger at Wind, who just scowled.

Sky looks from Legend to the two with an angry look, a rare and scary thing for the man to have, and the other Links immediately take a step back.

"Well, _I_ for one knew this would be a bad idea, and I can't believe I let you all drag me into this." He growls out at them and they back off from each other while Sky breaks off to kneel by the traveler and the veteran, expression immediately softening while he unlatches his sailcloth. He apologizes for pulling such a prank and drapes the cloth over Legend like a blanket, defending Hyrule and Time for not having been a part of it before going to join Time in scolding the others for being so inconsiderate and insensitive.

At that point Legend had calmed his sobbing, but refused to move from where his face was hidden in the crook of Hyrule's neck, still shaking profusely. Gently, Hyrule readjusts them so his legs aren't going numb. Eventually, Legend falls back asleep, undoubtedly worn out from his panicking.

The rest of the Links set camp back up, all looking guilty with Time and Sky looking angry and disappointed. Hyrule only moves when Sky diggs out the veterans balled up bedroll that was stuffed into his pack and lays it back out for him to rest the sleeping hero on in the shade of a tree, and even then, he doesn’t leave Legend’s side. The vet, now using Hyrule’s lap as a pillow and Sky’s sailcloth as a blanket, was breathing soundly and calmly. Hyrule wondered what was going to happen when he woke back up, but could easily see him being ashamed of his freak-out, of closing himself off even more than he already was, and being mad at the others for pranking him in such a way, if you could call something that basically gave someone a panic attack a “prank”.

It wasn’t until after lunch that Legend woke back up.

Hyrule was practicing re-reading one of the books Legend had given him a while back when Legend flinched awake, making Hyrule flinch in response and nearly drop said book on the original owner’s head. He caught the book before it really fell, and set it down to look at Legend, who was looking up at him with wide eyes before he sighed heavily in relief and covered his face with his hands, wiping his eyes and face while he took another deep breath in before letting it out in another sigh and sitting up.

Legend stares at the sailcloth he was using as a blanket for a tense quiet minute as everyone has realized by now that Legend was awake, and was waiting for his response now that he wasn’t in a panicked mindset. When the veteran finally turns to look their way, he locks eyes with Time, Sky, and Warriors, and Hyrule can’t see what face he’s making, but Warriors looks away from him in shame not even after a second. What really got to him was the fact that he caused the vet to panic, and now he looked at them all without even a slight twitch of an eyebrow.

Warriors breaths in, preparing to say something, but then Legend turns his back to them and leans his head on Hyrule’s shoulder, wrapping his arms securely around one of the traveler’s own and looking blankly out into the forest.

“L-... Listen, Legend, I’m sorry, I-” The captain starts, but is quickly cut off with a quiet monotone voice.

“I don’t wanna hear it. I don’t care.”

None of the heroes bother him after that, and even when Wild arrives with dinner, he’s ignored until Hyrule takes it and persuades him to eat.

* * *

After that day, the only people Legend looks happy with are Hyrule, Time, and Sky, but even then his mood seems to hang, always teetering just on the edge of depression. This is especially obvious when the group is traveling silently. Legend will walk with his arms folded in front of him, and his eyes always avoiding the gaze of the others. Everyone has tried to apologize since the uh, “prank”, but all except for Sky were met with deadpan stares and silence.

Then, eventually, they land in Legend’s world again, and finally, his mood seems to lighten. Leading the group with the only other Links he’s talked to in the past couple of weeks, Legend takes them to his cottage where he was living with that merchant in the purple robe. He hesitates outside his door for a second, his hand hovering just over the doorknob, when the door opens to reveal the very purple-robed merchant.

“Link! Your back!” Ravio smiles as he hugs Legend, who visibly relaxed and returned the hug. Almost immediately, the merchant seemed to realize something was wrong, his smile morphing into a frown as he pulled back to really look at Legend. “Is something wrong?” Legend grimaced, but shrugged instead of saying anything and the merchant’s frown grew.

“Ok, we’ll talk about it in a bit,” he said as he eyed everyone that was awkwardly standing around and beckoned for them to come inside while he led Legend in by holding his hand. “Everyone come on in! Make yourself at home, there's some snacks in the pantry, but don’t eat any of the bread, I was planning on making some garlic bread later, and I’ll need plenty of it if anyone else is gonna want some! I’m gonna go talk with Link now, so, uh.. Yea!” Ravio smiled awkwardly when he realized how quiet everyone was being, and how no one was trying to explore like they did the last couple of times they’ve been there.

After awkwardly regarding everyone in tense silence, Ravio leads Link back to their room and softly closes the door.

“What’s wrong, did something happen? You normally don’t really care for showing affection in front of others, but you hugged me back at the door. Rather tightly too, might I add. You normally only do that when you’re upset about something.”

Instead of answering right away, Legend leans in and hugs Ravio again, who hesitates with surprise before returning it.

“What's wrong, love?” Ravio gently asks into his hair.

Again, Legend doesn’t immediately answer, but after a minute of silence from letting his partner organize his thoughts, he does answer.

“I thought I lost them. I thought they left me.” Legend whispers and tenses as he recalls what happened, the panic he felt, and he feels the tears returning. Only this time, it's out of hurt and betrayal. It was a shocking thing to experience, especially after thinking back and realizing it was supposed to be some sick joke.

“Oh, honey…” Ravio squeezed him slightly. The merchant knows about Link’s abandonment issues, having had to wake him up from a few nightmares where Ravio left him and having to reassure him that he was still there, and he was still awake. He knew about Marin, and how his uncle died. He knew Link has had trouble opening up to him because he was scared the merchant was going to leave him too, and they worked so hard on improving that to the point that Legend stopped having the nightmares so often.

“Can I ask what happened, exactly? Would you like to talk about it?”

Link took a deep, shaky breath before answering bitterly, “It was a stupid fucking prank.” Another breath, “They let me sleep in a-and thought it would be _funny_ if they just. Left.” He sobs and squeezes Ravio, “When I woke up, the camp was completely empty and I d-didn’t know where anyone was, or if they were ever there at all…” His voice comes out soft and wheezy as his throat closes back up and he takes in another shaky breath of air.

Ravio can’t believe it. To think that all that hard work they put into helping him overcome all that past trauma only for it all to be undone by some assholes of so-called heroes. Legend sobs again and Ravio shushes him gently, running his hand through his hair and massaging his scalp, something the merchant learned was a good and easy way to calm down his partner. 

“It's ok, honey, just breathe. They’re all real and they’re all here now, and so am I. That wasn’t very hero-like of them, and judging from the way they looked when I saw them, I’m sure they regret what they did to you, but that doesn’t make it any less terrible. If it were up to me, I’d beat all of them senseless, but I doubt I’d be able to take them all on by myself.”

Link chuckles at the last comment, and Ravio smiles at his small success. The hero sniffs and clears his throat before talking again. “Don’t beat up Hyrule or Time at least, they weren’t around when War came up with the idea… Hyrule was the one that found me after I started panicking. He’d never leave like that on purpose.”

“Well, that's good.” Ravio responds with a soft kiss to the side of Link’s head. “I shall spare the kid and the old man for today, then.” He says as a continuation of his bravado act, eliciting another soft chuckle from Link.

After that, they stand there for a bit, swaying from side to side in each others arms, just enjoying the other’s presence. After a while though, Links stomach growls and they start laughing, finally separating from their hug.

“Ok, Mr. Hero, lets go get some dinner.”

“Yea, ok.”

Legend takes Ravio’s hand with a smile and they leave the comfort of their room to the kitchen, where Wild was cooking some dinner already, but the two ignored him and started making the garlic bread Ravio said he’d make earlier. Only Hyrule, Time, and Sky being allowed to have some slices while the others got ignored some more. It hurt, it felt wrong, but for the first time in a while, Legend looked actually happy, without the weight of the cloud the rest of the group has cast over him.

**Author's Note:**

> I may make a part 2 with more comfort n stuff but idk yet
> 
> So yea! Yay abandonment and betrayal trauma!! How nice.
> 
> Also, I may also end up editing this fic alot bc it has not been proof-read very much, i just wanted to get out a fic where i project onto legend like, majorly, and also give him the comfort i didnt know how to give myself :D


End file.
